By Nate Cassel, Senior Consultant at PlanPILOT
Managing an employer-sponsored retirement plan can be challenging, especially if it’s a plan that has experienced significant participant growth without the administrative infrastructure to support it. As the plan grows, the management should adapt and grow with it. Unfortunately, for many employers, that’s not always the case. That’s where PlanPILOT comes in.
We can help plan sponsors simplify the implementation and management of their plans, freeing up time and energy for other important projects. But don’t just take our word for it. Here’s one example of how we helped a recent client streamline their employer-sponsored retirement plan.
The Client
In this case, our client was a large Texas community college that had seen tremendous growth in recent years. Their part-time employee population had grown exponentially by the time we started working with them, but their retirement plan for part-timers had not been evaluated since it was first established in the early 1990s.
The Goal
Since this part-time retirement plan is a mandatory contribution plan that replaces Social Security for these employees, it is crucial that it is:
- Easy to administer
- Understandable and “automatic”
- Streamlined to cash out all permitted balances automatically
This was not the case when PlanPILOT was hired. The client had one person dedicated to taking care of almost 10,000 participant accounts, answering questions from confused employees, verifying paper forms for distributions, and fixing employee account issues.
There was a lot of inefficiency with how the plan was being managed on a day-to-day basis. PlanPILOT was hired to help alleviate this issue.
The Outcome
As part of our process, we led the client through a complete and comprehensive Request for Proposal so they could evaluate their options for a new recordkeeper and third-party plan administrator. Our vetting and facilitation of this process allowed the client to:
- Select a fully automated solution with a national recordkeeper that has extensive experience working with their type of plan.
- Cash out nearly 2,000 small balances, reducing plan liability and future administrative burden.
- Outsource virtually all customer service questions to the recordkeeper, allowing the internal dedicated employee to transition to other needed projects.
- Improve the investment options available within the plan and adopt a best-in-class, comprehensive mutual fund line-up with quarterly fiduciary monitoring.
Working with PlanPILOT was an instrumental part in streamlining the recordkeeping, administration and management of this client’s part-time retirement plan.
Do You Need Help Streamlining Your Retirement Plan?
If you are a plan sponsor experiencing a similar issue, or if you would like a second set of eyes on your current plan’s management, please reach out to us! At PlanPILOT, we have the tools and expertise to help plan sponsors update their plans to keep up with the evolving needs of employees and federal regulations. To learn more about our process, call us at (312) 809-3603 or email nate.cassel@PlanPILOT.com..
About Nate
Nate Cassel is a Senior Consultant at PlanPILOT, an independent retirement plan consulting firm headquartered in Chicago. PlanPILOT delivers comprehensive retirement plan advisory services to 401(k), 403(b), and 457 plan sponsors. His specialties include plan governance, plan design, product evolution, and plan oversight. Nate has over thirty years of experience in the retirement plan arena helping plan sponsors provide better plan outcomes for their employees while lowering institutional risk.